New version squirrel (webmail)

1234567890 seconds since The Epoch

Next Saturday February 14 at 00:31:30 local time the time counter
that is commonly used in the Unix world, i.e. the
number of seconds since January 1, 1970 UTC ('The Epoch'),
reaches the pleasing value of 1234567890. Perhaps even more
exciting is the fact that in the early morning of January 19,
2038 the counter reaches the maximum value that can be stored
in a 32 bit signed integer. Luckily there still is enough time
to find a solution for this daunting challenge compared to
which the Y2K problem was just a stroll in the park.

Again power failure server room HG04.070

Saturday Jan 31 around 03:00h the power supply fire protection unit in
the server room HG04.070 was activated again, which caused the immediate
and complete power down of all servers in that room. This time as well no sensor had detected
a temperature high enough to activate the protection unit.

There was no extra information available to determine a more definitive cause
for the immediate 'Emergency Stop' of the UPS unit.

To prevent a new faulty fire alarm event, only one (1) temporary, mechanical
temperature switch, can activate the UPS 'Emergency Stop'.

The complete fire alarm power switching unit with 4 temperature senors has been
disconnected from the UPS 'Emergency Stop'. This system is still working and
is still connected to and monitored by the building alarm system.

It has been discovered that every door entrance has a fire-key-switch, directly connected to the UPS 'Emergency Stop'.
These switches were not connected to the building alarm system. The switches are now disconnected from the
UPS 'Emergency Stop' and are now connected to and monitored by the building alarm system.

This setup ensures that:

there still is a working fire power protection unit, be it with a only one slow sensor at one place (near the hot spot).

a failure in the old circuit of the door switches will be detected, but cannot cause a UPS 'Emergency Stop'.

it will be clear when an UPS internal problem is the cause of an UPS 'Emergency Stop'.

Depending on future alarms, new information will come available to explain power failures and their causes.

It is agreed that the current situation will remain in place for at least two months unless an alarm occurs.

Computer lab usage available again

PC rooms upgraded

The last weeks almost all older PC rooms have had an upgrade. These PCs now have at least 1 GB of memory and a
better MS Windows (WDS) installation. Exceptions are the too old PCs in TK702 (TK-GIS, HG02.702) and the "self study rooms" (HG00.2xx).

Power failure server room HG04.070

January 20, around 10:45h, the power supply fire protection unit in
the server room HG04.070 was activated, which caused an immediate
and complete power down of all servers in that room.

Through bypassing the protection unit, power could be switched on again,
first partially and fully functional again about 12:00h.

Then the fixing hardware and software problems resulting from the immediate shutdown
could be started. This took several hours for some systems.
Work on the student file server lasted until the morning of January 21.

Around 18:00h the protection unit was activated again with a larger margin
for the room temperature.

Department contacts instead of first line contact (person)

The title "first line contact (person)" for contacts for C&CZ in the departments
of the Faculty of Science was often misinterpreted by people elsewhere because
the term "first line support" in general is associated with the ICT support groups.
Therefore on the C&CZ wiki the term "department contact"
is now used instead.

Firefox: new version with NoScript security

On all managed pc's the latest version of Firefox has been installed including
the NoScript plugin. NoScript initially forbids execution of all
scripts on a webpage. Per website one can decide to allow scripts temporarily or permanent. This is an
excellent tool to minimize the risks of using websites.

Tracelab: ordering and keeping track of chemicals

Due to ever more stringent rules for ordering and keeping track of chemicals, the intention is to only order chemicals through Tracelab from January 1, 2009 and therefore reject orders for chemicals that are directly entered into BASS Finlog. This holds for all units of the Faculty of Science (in the Research Tower as well) and for all users who are located in the buildings of the Faculty of Science (hence also the spin-offs).

Matlab new version (R2008b)

Starting December 2008 a new version (R2008b) of Matlab is available. The license server has already been upgraded. Very soon it will be available on all C&CZ managed PCs with Linux or Windows. For more information about this release, see
the Mathworks website

Surfnet Usenet News service alternative

McAfee license stops, F-Secure license starts

The RU ICT Overleg (RIO) decided that the RU transitions from McAfee to F-Secure for PC security before September 1, 2009. The F-Secure Client Security software has been placed on the install network disk. License codes can be requested from C&CZ.

Outgoing mail spamfiltered

As of today mail which is recognized by the Science spamfilter
as being spam is not sent to external mailservers anymore, but saved to a central quarantine folder. This change in the behaviour of the Science mailservers was necessary because those servers otherwise ended up in a blacklist. The forwarding of incoming mail thus gives a filtered mail feed from now on.

Ricoh copiers/printers

Because the Ricoh copiers/printers have been used for half a year now and soon a
new machine will be bought, C&CZ likes to hear wishes/problems from within the Faculty of Science. Please address these to the C&CZ helpdesk.

Phone Guide RU updated automatically

The interface between the Science phone guide and the RU Relation Management System (RBS) and through that with the phone guide is working now.
That means that the guides will automatically be updated when
the telefone contact person (usually the secretary) of a department within the Science Faculty
logs into and updates the Science Phone Guide website. In the Science Phone Guide one can also
enter information of labs, elevators, secretariats etc., only the data for a U-number will
end up in RBS. For more information see the Telephony page.

Network maintenance connection RU-UMCN September 22 18:00-22:00

September 22 between 18:00-22:00 hours the network connection between RU and UMCN St. Radboud will be upgraded to 1 Gigabit per second, which will cause problems withthat connection during that time period.

Reporting repairs/problems through the helpdesk website

Since a few months several employees and students use the C&CZ helpdesk website to request repairs and report other problems. One has to login on the website with the Science login name. Advantages are that if the machine is known, like with a Managed Workplace PC, one doesn't need to fill in serial numbers and that one can follow the actions for the repair through the website.

Causing trouble for colleagues by reacting to phishing mail (mail asking for password)

A week ago a too naive colleague reacted to a phishing mail by sending his loginname and password. Soon after that loginname was misused to send large amounts of spam through our webmail server, which lead to the appearance of one of our servers in a blacklist. That made it impossible for that server to send mail to some organisations. C&CZ likes to stress *again* that it is not very wise to believe something just because is written in a letter or e-mail and that *no official institution* will ever ask you for your password, just like a bank never will ask you for your pincode for your bank account.

H:-disk of students moved and enlarged

Because of the new computer lab TK023 with dual-boot Windows/Linux PC's, the H:-disks (home directories under Linux/Unix) of students have been moved to a new server. This made it also possible to enlarge the quota on that disk to 1 GB per student.

New computer lab TK023

A new computer lab TK023 (HG00.023) is available, with 41 modern PC's with big 24" screens with high resolution. For C&CZ this is a new type: the user can boot Windows-XP as well as Fedora Linux. Such a dual- or multi-boot PC is the standard for the future for the computer labs, with in the future almost certainly also Windows-Vista next to Windows-XP.

Opening hours C&CZ extended

Personnel changes at C&CZ

As of September 1, Kees Keijzers will mainly concern himself with leading the university project for the introduction of Syllabus Plus. Therefore he resigns as head of C&CZ, although he stays at C&CZ in the role of advisor. The new head of C&CZ is Peter van Campen. The vacancy within System Administration/Development is filled by Caspar Terheggen.

New version Endnote available

A CD of Endnote version X2 is available for MS-Windows, version X1 for Macintosh. It can be installed on Windows from the install network disk, but the CDs can also be borrowed by employees and students, for home use too. In a few weeks it will also be available on the Windows-XP Managed PCs.

Surfnet Usenet News service ended

Critical security flaw in Adobe Acrobat t/m versie 8.1.2

Adobe Acrobat has a critical security flaw, all users of version 8 are recommended to update to version "8.1.2 Security Update 1". Since the site-license for Adobe software has finally come through, this update can probably best be combined with the update to the Professional version.

Adobe Creative Suite on install-disc and can be lent

The DVD's of Adobe CS3 Design Premium UK and NL for MS-Windows and for UK Macintosh have been copied to the install network disc. Postmaster can provide serial numbers. The DVDs can also be borrowed at HG03.055. The other versions (Web) probably are less popular. May be used on campus by employees and students. Employees can purchase at Surfspot a DVD set for use at home. Home use by students is not covered by this license.

ChemBioOffice

Floris van Delft (department Organic Chemistry) made a description of the functionality of the software package ChemBioOffice. The package may be downloaded, free of charge, by everyone who has a science mail account (staff and students). Floris () is willing to answer questions about the usage of the package.

Software update: Maple 12

A new version (12) of Maple has been installed on Linux/Solaris. Early next week it will also be available on the Windows-XP Managed PCs. It can be installed on Windows from the install network disk, but the CDs can also be borrowed by employees and students, for home use too.

New version of the Windows Managed PC

There is a new installation method for the Windows-XP Managed PCs, that has been developed and is being maintained by several IT-support groups in the RU tohether, in the SITO (Samenwerkende IT-Ondersteuning) project. The main difference is that more software is installed, and that it is less dependent on network drives. Many PCs in the Study Landscape and several departmental PCs have been installed with the new method.

Matlab: TIMEOUTALL introduced, installation procedure changed

After an idea from FC Donders, C&CZ changed the options for the Matlab license server to include a 'TIMEOUTALL 3600'. This has the advantage that an inactive user can hold a license for Matlab or a toolbox for 1 hour at maximum, but could cause problems sometimes for the many tens of users within Radboud Unicversity and Hospital, because it can happen that a long-running Matlab job stops because there is currently no license available.

On Surfspot the site-license products of Adobe for home-use by employees are available for 35 euro per bundle. One can choose between the English or Dutch version of the 'web' or 'design' bundle. Both bundles contain a.o. Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat Professional, Dreamweaver. Only the 'design' bundle contains InDesign. The site license products for installation on campus have been urgently ordered.

Adobe software will become site-license after all!

Today SURFdiensten reported that the site license agreement between SURFdiensten and Adobe for Dutch schools and universities reached a final status. The products and codes for the licensed products are expected to become available next week.

New version of Mathematica (6.0.2.1)

MS Office for Mac 2008 NL/UK *campus* can be borrowed

A CD of MS Office 2008 for Macintosh can be borrowed for campus use and on Macs owned by departments, the NL- as well as the UK-version. For home use one can buy it relatively cheap at Surfspot, althoug it is always more expensive than the free OpenOffice.

Removing old mail addresses helps prevent spam

At this time (May 2008) we often see that suddenly a lot of spam is sent from different places on the Internet, with a (fake) sender address of the old "@sci.kun.nl" form. For the owner of such an address this gives some trouble, since the spam that cannot be delivered wiil come "back" to the sender address that was used. To help prevent this, it is a good idea to look in the DIY website which old "kun.nl" addresses can be removed and mail that to postmaster.